Saturday 25 February 2012

So what was that you were saying about my hair..?


Some talk this week of the redheads... well, in the last post anyway... and that made me want to show you this (the picture above). It comes from a new Pixar “animated picture” (er, long cartoon) that's called “Brave” and that we'd not heard about until we were at "The Muppets" last week and saw the trailer (still singing that Muppet song, are you? I know I am...). "Brave" will be at the cinemas later this year and I'll be interested to see how it does here as it's set in Scotland and features a whole lotta tartan. Will Alex Salmond be at the premiere, for example? Will there be "Brave" merchandise in every petrol station and fast food outlet in the country? Will anyone in England watch it..?

We'd probably be more excited about it if the trailer at the cinema hadn't already shown us the whole film (feisty heroine, Billy Connolly does the King, it looked a lot like a Scottish version of the recent "How to Train Your Dragon" that DreamWorks had a few years ago...). But we will see it partly because, as you can see, the heroine has the kind of hair I spend a lot of time, these days, picking off the floor. Here's our in-house heroine posing for a photo for a school World Book Day competition (her hair, I should point out, was not brushed, or in any way prepared for photography, before the shoot...). The setting was her idea.




I did think this week about writing a redhead poem... it is something I think about often as I look at that pretty head. The nearest I've got so far is this one about squirrels... it is about humans too, in part, of course.

And finally, this Tuesday 28th the guests at the folk club in Montrose are Patsy Matheson and Becky Mills (formerly of Waking the Witch). Matheson is fairly red of head too... so it's a good excuse to play a clip of their music. This one is “Spring Song” - it seemed apt as the weather here has been glorious of late:



19 comments:

Karen said...

I loooove red hair! I married a man with red hair, have a red haired daughter who married a red haired man, with whom she has two red haired babies! Red hair is heavenly!

Rachel Fox said...

Yes. I think we established in the last post (comments) that a lot of the negativity is jealously-based... and thoughtless/lazy too. I dyed my hair red when I was about 17 and I pretty much had to beat off male admirers with a stick!

People comment on h's hair so much when I go about the place with her... I do see that it defines you in a way that brown hair does not. It does seem that the negativity gets aimed more at men... I have certainly heard more women being stupid about "ginner" men than the men about women. Oh heavens, why are some women so stupid?

x

The Solitary Walker said...

My daughter has long red hair and it's absolutely gorgeous. Not that anyone's seen it for years. After acute self-consciousness about it, and being teased no doubt, she dyes it blonde. Such a shame, I feel.

Rachel Fox said...

Dyed it for years? That is a shame... but I suppose it's her choice. I think h wants to try black hair when she's older...

x

Kat Mortensen said...

In my youth, I wanted red hair very badly, so I dyed it. It was all about the Irish thing for me. It was a draw for admirers, but the blondes still fared best. I don't dye it at all now. Just letting it go gray, very slowly.

We love, "How To Train Your Dragon" and will undoubtedly enjoy, "Brave".

Rachel Fox said...

I went to Ireland with a very red-haired friend when I was in my early 20s (my first visit there I suppose, looking back) and I remember saying to her "there'll be loads of redheads about won't there?" "Not really," she replied, "mostly in Ireland people have dark hair and those piercing blue eyes". And she was right there weren't half as many redheads as I expected. Scotland, on the other hand, seems to have far more (though of course I haven't actually seen figures to back this up!).

x

The Weaver of Grass said...

Dominic has red hair and he has certainly never told me of being bullied, made fun of etc. And he has never tried to dye it as far as I know. I love red hair - married a red-haired man (Dom's Dad) - he had French ancestry - wonder if there are many red-haired Frechmen?

hope said...

I've probably told you that the boys across the street when I was a kid had beautiful red hair...and I wanted it too. Mom said not everyone had red hair...then 2 girls moved in next door and yep, both redheads!

Even when we moved across town, 2 out of 3 next door were redheads! I know, I could dye mine but I have a bet with Mom that I never will. (She believed any onset of grey would change that). Nope...the grays are coming in slowly but they're thicker than my baby fine brown stuff!

Do tell "h" we love her because she is intelligent and curious.

The Bug said...

I love that picture of H - it reminds me of a sleepover birthday party I had once. My parents found me hiding in the closet reading a book - ha!

Well, you know how I feel about redheads already. I had never really heard them called "ginger" until recently. Of course that just makes me think of gingerbread, so what's not to love?

Rachel Fox said...

Don't know about France really, Weaver. I've never noticed a lot of redheads there but maybe there are pockets of red. We noticed that in the US, Hope, (pockets of red) and Carolina was certainly one of the redder areas (well, North Carolina anyway... we never made it to SC, as you know).

Have you watched the show "The Middle", Bug? The little boy (Brick) reads everywhere. We love him! Think you might like the show...

x

Rachel Fenton said...

My kid brother's a red head with brown eyes. I'm a happy brunette with blue eyes. My big brother is blonde with green eyes. (We DID all have the same parents).

It's not how we look that defines us but what we do.

Rachel Fox said...

Lots of different parents in my family... both parents married twice... and yet we, the offspring, don't really look that different! Work that out...

As for the defining business... it's a nice theory but I'm not sure it's quite that simple. We are defined by so many different things... and how people see us certainly contributes in the big mix. For example Mark's continual taunting at school (see first comment) probably did contribute to making him the person he is and making him a person who absolutely does not judge people by appearance in a negative way (lots of people say they don't do that... but most do on some level at least).

And as I go around places with h and people comment on how she looks ALL the time (not just the red... she's very, um, petite too) I know that it is part of my job to help her process all this and not end up either (a) yet another woman who hates the way she looks and is obsessed by it or (b) a vain nightmare who thinks of nothing but how she looks (that's unlikely on current form... like me she rarely looks in a mirror). I have to help her learn to love what she is to the rest of the seeing world whilst at the same time not thinking about it too much! Phew. Who'd be an adolescent again? Though actually I think she'll do fine... much imagination and many interests and, thank goodness, a fair amount inherited from her Dad's side of the family (not just hair).

Poet Lemn Sissay writes a lot about people who say things about being "colourblind" (e.g. here - I can't find the post of his I was looking for... this is the closest I can find). It's not the same subject... but it is touching on some of the issues... the facing up to difference and acknowledging it and then making it good). I think.

x

Titus said...

I've never, ever, understood the redhead thing, as all it has ever evoked in me is unbridled envy. Rita Hayworth, for goodness sake!
Craig did find it a burden in childhood and teenagerdom, however. I think there was a lot of teasing. We did the math when the boys were due, as fully expected one redhead as the two big ones are blonde/brown, but got another couple of blond/brown.
I love the reading in the wardrobe!
Does anyone ever confess to reading in the toilet?

Rachel Fox said...

It does seem to be male redheads who get more grief than females. One of the few times women and girls do better maybe...

As for the photography, I have known people with whole libraries in their loos so I'm guessing some people are out and proud about reading in there. The competition for school was "a picture of yourself reading in an unusual place" and I think when it was mentioned there was much toilet humour in class as a result. We talked about putting her up on the washing line/roof etc. for her photo but this was her choice... much more sensible. She did pretty well in the poetry reading the other week so we're not expecting the nod for this one... still, you never know.

x

Rachel Fox said...

I got mail about a comment from Cuban in London... it seems to have disappeared though! Blogger having an off-day..?

Rachel Fox said...

His comment never appeared... it looked like this:

Heard of this film and I'll be taking my children to see it. You gotta love Pixar (and yes, I'm also singing the Muppets song. Grew up with them, but dubbed in Spanish!).

Please, let us know how the film's received in Scotland. It'd be interesting to know. :-)

Greetings from London.

Rachel Fox said...

And now I want to go and listen to some Muppets in S.......panish.

x

Domestic Oub said...

Yes, not that many redheads knocking around here despite the Irish/redhead perception... we horribly boring brown haired types are breeding them out. Which is just down to pure jealously of course - if we can't be redheads, then no one can! We're just so bitter...

(And all together now - "I'm a MUPPET! A muppert of a man, I'm a MUPPET....")

Rachel Fox said...

A very manly muppet... I didn't know that was a-bloke-from-Flight-of-the-Conchords song till the Oscars. Made sense though!
x